Baroque Choral Guild: Reviews, June 2001

Dramatic Passion Closes Choral Guild Season

June 10, 2001

The Baroque Choral Guild brought its season to a fitting climax with a deeply committed performance of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion on Sunday at the First Congregational Church of Berkeley. Sanford Dole led the double chorus, a double orchestra, a children’s chorus, and a fine collection of soloists.

From the opening “Kommt, ihr Töchter” (“Come, daughters”) to the closing “Ruhe sanfte, ruhe wohl” (“Rest peacefully and well”) 3* hours later, the chorus sang with fine dramatic presence, acting as characters in the story of Jesus’ Passion and death and reflecting on it, sometimes as one chorus and sometimes in dialog between the two choruses.

Some years ago it was briefly fashionable to stage the St. Matthew Passion as an opera, but Bach’s writing creates a powerful operatic effect on its own. A mighty rumble in the orchestra’s bass instruments ushers in the mob’s shouting for Jesus’ death and the earthquake that accompanies it. The chorus shrieks, “Let him be crucified” in a stabbing fugue. Soloists and chorus reenact the Passion events - conspiracy, betrayal, arrest, miscarriage of justice, mob frenzy, death, and mourning - all propelled by the narrative of the Evangelist, powerfully sung in this performance by tenor Brian Staufenbiel.

Achingly Beautiful Chorale

Staufenbiel, placed too far back on the stage for maximum vocal presence, nevertheless succeeded admirably in furthering the action with his dramatic sense of pacing and dynamics - a very model of recitative singing. When he described Peter’s bitter weeping, a barrage of coughing from the audience threatened to obliterate one of the most telling moments in the story (a case was being made for translation into English, the language of the audience). But when he came to the death, everybody was with him: “Jesus cried aloud” (grand pause in the continuo) “and died” (pianissimo). And the chorus’ singing of the following chorale was achingly beautiful, every phrase weighted with grief, fear, and hope of redemption. Other chorales, an important structural element throughout the work, felt perfunctory in tempo and phrasing, making this last one especially moving.

David Newman sang the part of Jesus expressively, but in the same unvarying tempo throughout. Just because recitative is accompanied doesn’t mean that it can’t ebb and flow with the narrative. He brought a rich, noble sound to more songlike passages, as in the Last Supper scene.

Alto Margaret Bragle shaped her solos expressively. Her voice carries beautifully and she can create a powerful sustained crescendo and also sparkle in fast passages. Bach’s chromatic changes occasionally lured her into pushing to the edge of sharpness in her high range, but not often.

Fine Work from Soloists, Orchestra, Children’s Chorus

Soprano Twyla Whittaker joined Bragle in a well-matched duet lamenting Jesus’ capture, with the chorus weaving in and out with cries of protest. Whittaker’s arias in the first half of the Passion moved nicely and were gracefully ornamented, but she had difficulty shaping individual words and notes into the long, arching phrases of “Aus Liebe” (“Out of love”). It didn’t help that the spare flute/oboe accompaniment was far away from her on the wide stage.

Leroy Kromm’s bass-baritone was well suited to his solos, especially the final recitative and aria celebrating evening, rest, and acceptance. The lovely aria “Mache dich, mein Herze, rein” (“Make yourself pure, my heart”) was wonderfully supported by the bass instruments leaning into each downbeat, and Kromm’s quiet, beautifully paced ending was an emotional peak.

The double orchestra sometimes came unglued, especially in the last chorus of the first half, in which instruments kept wandering in and out, seemingly oblivious of the beat. Elsewhere, there were many moments of tight ensemble and tonal beauty. A number of players deserve mention for brilliant solo work: Concertmaster Michael Sand, violinist David Wilson, gambist John Dornenburg, flutist Louise Carslake, oboists Stanley King and Marianne Richert-Pfau, bassoonist Kate van Orden, and continuo cellist Elisabeth Reed. The Cantabile Children’s Chorus sang their chorales in the opening and closing choruses of the first half from memory, with pure sound and total assurance.

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Baroque Choral Guild, 953 Industrial Ave. Ste 118, Palo Alto CA 94303, 650.424.1410